Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-12-03
THE ROMANANG.
The Thanksgiving Festival of the Kalmuk
Tartars--In.eresting Account Of Its ORR.


sin and Observar &C.
The Thanksgiving Day, %Romanang,
OF the Kalmuk Tartars comes about
ten weeks earlier than ours. But it
comes for the same reason that is,
the Kalmuks had fled in a body from
the most cruel of all civilized mon
archs, the Gar of Russia. Half a mil
lion of the forgot Kalmuks had per-
ished in their wonderful march in
mid-winter from the river Don to the
ely" Remember the name of this
Kalmuk river, for | shall presently re-
vert to it. For the present moment,
however, the Romanang (roam un on)
is to be briefly described.
On the 9Th of every September the
kalmuks gather together in their tents
or before them If the weather is good
and begin their thanksgiving with a
grand chorus, compared to which the
modern orchestras of our day are very
small affairs. Their musical instru-
ments are drums of deep and lugubri-
Gus tone and a sort of clarionet, be-
sides some stringed instruments some
what resembling the guitar. These
with the Kalmuk voices joined in a sort
of grand chant commemorative O ftheir
escape from the Bashkir and Kirghis
; cavalry Of the Russian General, Tran
benberg, that together with the extreme
cold of the winter in which they had
began their wonderful flight, and the
heat and thirst Of the treeless, water
less desert, and the SIMMER i'm which
they finished that exodus-left not
more than two hundred thousand men,
women and children out of seven hun
dred thousand.
1t was on the 8th of September, 1771,
that the KalmuEs reached the river Ily
and were reconciled to the Chinese m
peror, Mr.. Chen Long. There is said
TO be a brass column as enduring as
Plymouth Rock set up at the spot
where the kind-hearted emperor met
the Tartar chief on his return TO his ma
tive land. This column bears the fol-
lowing expressive and comprehensive
inscription:
"By the Will Of God
"Horc upon the brink Of these deserts
"Which from this point begin aud stretch
away
"Pathless, t~reeless, waterlesa,
$50 thousands OF miles, and along the mar
gins Of many mighty nations.
Rested from their lsbors and from great sfllc-
lions
Under the shades of the Chinese Wall
And by the favor Of K en- Long, Gods Lieu.
tenant upon earth,
The Ancient Children of the Wilderncss-thc
Torgote Tartars,
FLYING before the Wrath OF the Grecian Car,
Wandering sheep who had strayed away from
the Celestial Empire, IN the year 1915
But are nov merclfully gathered again after
IL finite sorrow,
Into the fold OF their forgiving shepherd.
Hallowed be the spot forever
Hallogtd be the day - September s, 1Y71i
Amenl
Curlously enough the Kalmuk Khan
VINO led this memorable exodus of a
whole nation three thousand miles
was named Oubach or Ouabach, pro-
nounced Wabash.
Wabash, then, was the name of this
Kalmuk chief who instituted the Tor
cote Thanksgiving. Wabash in tho
Illinois tongue means "A cloud blown
before an equinoctial wind" 1t is
said that the good KEN Long saw the
great cloud of the desert dust blown
along before the flying Tartars the
"Ancient Children of the Wilderness"
as he compassionately called them
hours before the first camel of the adj
vance guard was visible. 1t was this
cloud Of choking sand--the fine yellow
ish white sand of the desert-that came
10 be associated in the minds of these
Scythians, these Ancient Children of
the Wilderness-with the name and
the memory of their beloved chief
Oubasb. The French spelled the
name Of our river Ouabache (Wabash).
Keeping these strange condolences
in mind and remembering that "lly" is
pronounced Eely or Eelu-and that
'naoi" pronounced noy) mean ITEM
pies" or "the houses Of God''-and
that lao, in the Greek, pronounced
eelayo or eelawo, means 'to conciliate,"
'tO reconcile, ITO appease''-and We
have ut least some oddly fanciful and
suggestive notions about illinois
pronounced by the French ard Indi-
ans Eellunoy) and the Wabash, along
with Thanksgiving subjects in general.
The Wabash is the sandiest of all
North American rivers. Were the H.
linois indians the Scythians-the An
cient Children of the Wilderness? And
did they call our River of the Sands
Wabash because Of that cloud of
desert sands that was blown along be-
fore them aud their Chief Ouabacha all
the dreadful summer Of 1771p And
did they call themselves the ''Eellunoy''
or ''Illinoy' because the Greek word
ilanaoi means ~"feconcilcd in Gods
country P'- HIS First temples the
prairies, rather than the grovesp
III. w. TAYLOR.